Republicans Using Race To Play Politics

A New York Times editorial details how GOP candidates are playing to racial prejudice in South Carolina. For one thing, as the piece points out, the president didn’t “put” anyone on food stamps as Newt Gingrich said.

People apply for food assistance, known officially as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, because they’re poor or out of work and their families are hungry. The number of people using the program, which is now at a peak, began rising with the recession, in 2007, and continued through four of the toughest years ever faced by the poor and near-poor in modern history. Mr. Obama eased the eligibility requirements as part of his stimulus program, a desperately needed measure that helped struggling families and the economy.

For another thing, blacks aren’t the biggest recipients of food stamps.

As for the notion that these are people who somehow like their dependency, 30 percent of SNAP households have income from work — a reminder of the brutal impact of the recession on wages.

So, it would be really nice if white politicians would stop lecturing blacks about how they should prefer work to food stamps, and while they’re at it, stop blaming President Obama for a program that is needed because of the lousy economy he inherited.